Thyrotoxic periodic paralysis in caucasians. Report of 8 cases.

Background: Periodic paralysis is a well known complication of thytotoxicosis in Chinese and Japanese patients, but has been considered extremely rare in caucasians.

Patients And Methods: Between 1991 and 1996, we admitted 8 caucasian patients to our Hospital due to thyrotoxic periodic paralysis. We retrospectively analysed their clinical manifestations.

Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of pivagabine in neurasthenia.

One hundred and eighteen patients with neurasthenia, as defined by ICD 10 (International Classification of Diseases), participated in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of pivagabine (4-[(2,2-dimethyl-1-oxopropyl)amino]butanoic acid, CAS 69542-93-4, Tonerg). Pivagabine 1800 mg/d was administered orally for four weeks. At the end of the trial, active medication was significantly superior to placebo on the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) improvement of illness scale.

Epileptic seizures in patients with acute catatonic syndrome.

Acute catatonic syndrome is a condition that can be caused by a variety of metabolic, neurological, psychiatric, and toxic conditions, including neuroleptic malignant syndrome. Although ictal catatonia as a manifestation of non-convulsive status epilepticus has been described, reference to the occurrence of seizures in patients with acute catatonic syndrome is anecdotal. Twenty nine patients with acute catatonic syndrome were reviewed to identify patients with seizures after the onset of acute catatonic syndrome.

The role of fine needle aspiration biopsy cytology in the evaluation of the clinically solitary thyroid nodule.

The imputation that a clinically solitary nodule is a suspicious sign of carcinoma has been the cause of too many surgical procedures as well as the subject of much controversy. This study evaluated the effectiveness of fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy cytology in diagnosing the uninodular goiters in 286 patients who presented with clinically solitary nodules. The final diagnoses in these cases included carcinoma (4.